Guild Wars 2

wonders if anyone brought cheese to this party

Underwhelmed? Not particularly.

I’m kind of ‘meh’ on the gliding myself, but that’s just a personal thing. I’m just big on flying in general, but otherwise, everything else has my interest. I look forward to working through masteries (ha, I was right, they are similar to EotN rep building!), and to poking at the new class.

Is anything we’re getting ground breaking? Honestly, one can’t really say yes or no to that until we get our hands on it and give it a go. Sadly too many judge the book by its cover, instead of waiting until they can actually try things in beta and then determine if it’s something they want to purchase.

Shiro. The multi-foe hit that Rytlok does in the trailer reminds me strongly of Riposting Shadows during the Imperial Sanctum fight. Bouncing from person to person because it just keeps renewing.

Guhracie.3419:

My warrior currently runs dual axes, so I’m not sure why that would be a specialization.

I think it’s highly likely that engineers will get hammers, and I agree that the profession with the shield does appear to be a mesmer, but seeing as this hasn’t been officially confirmed, I’d take it with a grain of salt.

I’d like to see a few classes get more than one new weapon. Sword- and axe- off-hand weapons for thieves? Yes, please. Maces for eles and engis would also be nice.

Whoops, that’s supposed to be un specialized. I fixed my typo.

And I agree, it’s highly likely engineers will get hammers, and thieves will get rifles, and the mes will get the shield. I’m just not counting my chickens before they hatch.

Of course, maybe that dual ax wielder was a guardian, and not a warrior, (though I highly doubt it). That’s some interesting food for thought too.

Watching the trailer again, I can’t really pick out a specialized heavy, or a specialized ele.

Guhracie.3419:

Staff for ranger and greatsword for necromancer were confirmed at PAX South.

As far as I’m aware these are the only ones truly confirmed.

The teaser vids do show a light armor with a sword and shield, which based on the butterflies in the skill effect, we’re assuming means mesmer will get shield as an off hand. The vid also shows an engineer (presumably) with a hammer and flying drones.

However, until the devs confirm these to be true, it could change at a moments notice imo.

We also see an additional medium armor holding a rifle. This could be an unspecialized engineer, or it could be a specialized thief. There is no footage to say distinctly one way or the other, and we do see other shots of (seemingly) unspecialized classes in the footage (warrior with dual axes for example). So its hard to tell.

DiogoSilva.7089:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

A class whose primary mechanic is energy management. Huh, go figure.

And yet, that’s one of the best mechanics they could haven given to it.

Maybe. Not necessarily. A lot depends how its actually implemented, and that’s not talked about in great detail. It’s interesting to see upkeep skills return though.

Since it’s a primary class mechanic, it kind of kills any chance of any type of e-denial being re-introduced into the play (at least I think so), and e-denial used to be such a fun spec to play on mesmer.

nostalgic

VodCom.6924:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

A class whose primary mechanic is energy management. Huh, go figure.

It’s not so bad. Deep inside me, I kinda regreted the disappearance of mana in GW2, which was a powerful balance tool. Sounds like it’s coming back with the revenant.

Oh I wasn’t saying it was a bad thing necessarily. All depends on how its actually implemented. It could end up really neat, it could end up super over powered, but we’ll have to wait and see.

Hmm, read the blog…. nto sure exactly how I feel about this class. Admittedly, the first thought that came to mind when I was reading about the hammer was ‘Thor would like his weapon back now’ but I think that might just be the amount of sugar I’ve had today.

A class whose primary mechanic is energy management. Huh, go figure.

grumble

I can’t get blood to drop for me as it is when I’m out in SSC farming. Now there’s going to be even more people out there killing my critters.

hmph

Hmmm unpopular opinions….

….. thinking …..

Oh!

*Anet knows what they are doing

I remember when once upon a time you got rewarded for participating, regardless of whether your team won or lost. Obviously the shinies were better if you won, but still. I miss those days….

As much as I like Dragon all…the fact that I get absolutely nothing regardless of whether I win or not, kinda kills it for me. Its get 5 wins, or get nothing. Sadness.

They don’t call this mode GvG, but it’s very reminiscent of GW1 GvG. The core concepts are there. However, instead of just static NPCs now (in and around one’s base), they’ve built some additional ‘features’ on top of the core idea.

I’m not 100% sure on the whole addition of supply and such to the mode, but it depends on how fluid the play actually is. I’ll try to reserve judgement until I can see some matches for the mode.

Iason Evan.3806:

In the guild hall CDI some months ago there was a general consensus that guild halls should be easy to acquire and upgrade basic features. I will be totally disappointed if the progression system doesn’t scale to guild size. Just because you prefer a smaller, more tight knit community for your guild shouldn’t mean you miss out on amenities for longer because you are smaller. I hope ArenaNet takes this into consideration.

Guild halls shouldn’t be a “mine’s bigger than yours” kittening contest. They are instanced and should be for each guild to enjoy. There should game play involved to earn them, but bigger guilds shouldn’t have an advantage. Events scale, why shouldn’t guild hall acquisition scale to guild size as well?

+1

Here, have cookies…

Blaeys.3102:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Blaeys.3102:

I understand the issue, but there has to be some kind of mechanic or currency that discourages individuals and extremely small groups from building guild halls just for the individual perks. Otherwise, they might as well just call it player housing.

To be quite blunt, it’s bullkitten. A guild of 2 is no less a guild than one that has 100.

I dont think you actually read what was posted, but chose to pull out just a small part. The post and the issues regards guilds of one person.

Even the definitions you cite use the plural “persons,” indicating more than a single member.

Once again, I agree that this is a feature that should be available to both small and big guilds, but at what point does a guild hall lose all meaning and just turn into player housing – which would do more to segment the community than it would to offer any sense of community (which is what guilds should be – communities).

This is why my suggestion above does not include using merits to unlock a guild hall. Let’s come up with a suggestions that allows for guilds of all sizes, but that still require some TINY bit of effort and cooperation between players in a guild to get started.

Guild hall… player housing..nomenclature, all it is. It really makes no difference if a person wants to build it alone. Hell, if they succeed that should be a testament to them as a player. This doesn’t relegate halls to meaningless. It’s just one more option for that persons play style. And who knows maybe at some point, he might grow that guild and share it, or maybe he never does. Doesn’t mean he shouldn’t have the same opportunities as a bigger guild.

As for merits…yeah I can agree that I hope they aren’t required to unlock our guild halls, but somehow I just know they’ll play a part. Unfortunately my guild never got to the point of earning any (not that we haven’t tried), so I guess we’re just s.o.l. if that’s the case.

Blaeys.3102:

I understand the issue, but there has to be some kind of mechanic or currency that discourages individuals and extremely small groups from building guild halls just for the individual perks. Otherwise, they might as well just call it player housing.

This was exactly the attitude / issue I had concerns about when the guild hall CDI came up.

This “belief” that a guild has to be some extreme number of people in order to be considered “special enough” to have a place of their own.

To be quite blunt, it’s bullkitten. A guild of 2 is no less a guild than one that has 100.

guild:
“an organization of persons with related interests, goals, etc.”
“an organization, club, or fellowship”

Nothing more, nothing less. Size should play no part here (except in perhaps the amount of time it takes to get things done)

Beast Sos.1457:

Astral Projections.7320:

Beast Sos.1457:

Kal Spiro.9745:

Ok, but at the same time, it seems like everyone who has an 80, and especially has been playing for a long while will be starting the game with a nice big chunk of Master Points. On the same note, new players will potentially be earning Mastery Points long before they ever reach the point where they can start using them.

Once you have Mastery Points you’re just leveling up your Mastery Track like you were leveling up your level before. It’s only a grind if you make it a grind. It’s as casual or hard core as you want it to be, without requiring you to do a raid every Wednesday with your entire guild to have a chance at maybe getting that one piece of gear you need to increase your gear score by 5.

Well the problem I’m seeing is that combat will be gated. That is a huge turn off for me. Like I said I could be 100% wrong but from the looks of it its seems like I would have to grind out a Mastery to be able to fight a certain boss/mob.

In the current game you can make your way to Frostgorge or Orr without being a high enough character level to fight efficiently. You can get there, but the mobs will one shot you. That’s what it sounds like here. The lower your (Mastery) level, the harder, to impossible, it will be to fight certain mobs. It’s leveling without leveling.

In other words the game already has combat gating.

We are talking about gating end game content here. Not lvling content.

It’s the same general concept though. It has to be that way (to some extent) in order to replicate the feeling of progression, of getting stronger in order to move forward. It’s no different.

Astralporing.1957:

What really worries me is a small throwaway line in “Fractal masteries” description about unlocking “more powerful infusions”.
I thought we weren’t supposed to get any gear creep…

We were told over a year ago that stronger infusions were coming. I don’t recall who said it though; whether it was Brian or Colin. It was right around the time that it was stated that they didn’t see a need for another gear tier. I think I brought it up as a point of contention in the progression CDIs.

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

skullmount, your comparison with the PvP reward-track makes a lot of sense, especially when looking at this statement:

Higher tiers in Mastery tracks require progressively more Mastery points and more experience to fully train.

So you

• complete maps
• find secrets
• complete story steps
• get good results in adventures
• …

in order to unlock a new reward track AND/OR a new tier of a reward track.

Then you simply get experience to fill the bar by…

• doing events
• killing mobs
• crafting

once the bar is filled, you can spend your mastery points to open up the next tier

am I right?

That’s roughly what it sounds like.

Right around 2k hours ….ish

0 precursors

Bird, while I get the general point of what you’re driving at here, I think you’re jumping the gun just a bit.

There is far too much that we don’t know yet to be able effectively judge how much “grind” will actually be involved with the mastery system. I can see them giving enough points through ‘casual’ play to be adequate for most people, and then having additional ‘grind’ for those hard core people that need that type of play. We’ll just have to wait and see.

DBZVelena.5186:

TexZero.7910:

Sounds like a better version of the current WvW masteries which already exist.

That is what i thought too.

The interviews also say that it’s a lot like the WvW system. Just “expanded” upon.

However, even that reminds me loosely of the rep grind in GW1. I don’t have an issue with it, but it’s the same general flavor to me.

There will be things that are locked to buying the expansion. The new region is probably a given. I can see the new pvp mode as a possibility as well. Nothing has been confirmed specifically, we’ll just have to wait for that.

Still, if things are expansion locked, it’s not a big deal. This is no different than when they released factions or nightfall. AB, FA, QA where all locked behind getting Factions, as where Ritualist and Assassin classes. Dervish and paragon were locked behind Nightfall. So I would not be surprised in the least if specializations and the Revenent were locked behind HoT.

Yes, they have said no new weapons. Technically speaking, spears are not “new” weapons. They exist already. They just only exist for water. They could very well surprise us and make them land based weapons and still meet the criteria of ‘no new weapons.’

I’m not too worried about it either way. But it’d be really cool if I could wield a spear and a shield on my ranger again at some point.

arkealia.2713:

And all of you people answering in this thread will buy it =3.

Of course I will. I enjoy the game. I’ve gotten a couple thousand hours out of it. So yeah, I’m more than willing to buy an expansion and continue enjoying my casualness. ;p

Chewablesleeptablet.3185:

Except that you can since you are paying for your internet service already to play GW2. I can watch my TV shows on Hulu from the internet for free , all I have to do is pay for my internet service. So yah if you look at it that way you can compare.

The point is that television shows aren’t free; you’re shelling out funding in some for or another. (And not all shows on hulu are free) The analogy doesn’t work in the sense that they are intending it to work.

Oh sure, if you want to start applying internet cost to being able to play GW2, then you might want to start thinking about adding in the costs of electricity to power your home, the costs to heat that home, the costs of the fuel for your car so you can work to pay those bills. I mean if you really want to drill down, nothing is free. Not even the air you breathe.

Chewablesleeptablet.3185:

Living Story had a rocky start and it just started getting really good, but now Anet is throwing that away because some people can’t get away from old habits.

Yes, it did have a very rocky start. Yes, season 2 has been much better. However, people want a boxed expansion. Letting the LS lead into one works. It helps drive people to purchase it. Most likely after it drops, LS will continue, probably with some side stories, until they are ready to start setting the stage for the next big bad. It’s a solid idea that they can capitalize on.

eye floater.7140:

It’s not about choosing not to use them, it’s about where the players are, what they’re doing, and why..
People don’t give a kitten about dying in this game because they can res at a WP 15 seconds from where they fell.
Anyone play GW1? Yes, it is almost an entirely different game, but imagine how it would have been with WP’s everywhere… awful.
I’m not saying take away ALL of them, I’m saying take away most; even if there were 2 in every map, it wouldn’t be more than a 2 minute run to where you died, assuming they were placed evenly.

Isn’t one of the biggest gripes floating around these forums that people don’t use the waypoints to port out when they should?

Take Teq for example; people regularly kitten that dead players aren’t porting out and running back like they should, even with a way point “15 seconds away” as you point out.

Now lets remove 90% of the waypoints from that map and lets see what happens. Oh look, its exactly like whats happening in the SWs when people die against the Vinewrath. It makes the issue just that much worse.

I played GW1, yes it was a very different experience, but it’s design was different too. You can’t really compare the two in this respect because porting from town to town isn’t exactly the same as porting from waypoint to waypoint. Now, if you want to compare them to rez shrines…sure, to an extent. But in GW1, you typically weren’t more than 10 or 15 seconds from the closest rez shrine either.

And ABSOLUTELY NO! to adding mounts. kitten go play WoW or something

Nihilus.3015:

FrizzFreston.5290:

Not sure why I need to quote this again, because looking for information on the Main Heart Of Thorn release pages isn’t that hard. Here’s a quote and link to the source for those who haven’t read it yet.

FYI, It says Maps, which is plural of map. Map being 1 map. Maps being more than 1 map. I mean, come on now. No reason to be deliberately obtuse.

New adventures await you in the heart of the Maguuma Jungle. Confront the growing hordes of Mordremoth’s minions, discover allies from ancient civilizations, and battle new enemies.

• Tackle challenging group content.
• Explore new open world jungle maps.
• Experience new events and storylines.
• Test your mettle in new boss battles.

Link: https://heartofthorns.guildwars2.com/en/?_ga=1.251803535.767515840.1350500849#section-heartOfMaguuma

Also the main reveal has been entirely transcribed. (You who did, or is doing so: You’re insane, but thanks anyway!) Just a few quotes from that:

Now as Mo [Mike O’Brien] said earlier, the maps in the Heart of Maguuma are some of the richest, deepest content experiences that we have ever built in GW2.

====

As you complete exploring entire maps, you are rewarded with mastery points.

Link: http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2tjxe8/pax_announcement_wordforword_transcription_of/

It’s 1 Pve zone like I said, they will advertise more cause they count the Wvw map and Guild halls.

It’s one region. Not one zone; unless you are equating zone to region. Generally people equate zone to map, and there will be more than one map in the new region. That was already confirmed in a couple of the interviews.

For all those using TV shows as an analogy; keep in mind that you are paying for a service package to watch the channel to begin with; be it cable or satellite. Even if you’re going through Hulu or Netflix, you’re still paying a fee to watch those episodes. So they aren’t technically free to begin with. The only real exception to this is if you’re watching ‘local’ channels, which is not what the majority of you are talking / thinking about.

Anywho, back on topic, I’m perfectly fine with this route – LS leading up and into the expansion story line. It’s actually what I’ve suggested they do since very early in the LS development. I rather like it, personally.

How do I feel about no level cap increase, and no new tiers of armor, and a solid statement from Colin that they will “never” add those things for the life of the game?

I absolutely freaking love it!

(as long as they stick to that commitment)

“Correct,” he answers. “We will never add more levels to the game, we will never add more tiers of gear to the game. The tiers and levels we have today will be the tiers and levels we have for the rest of the life of Guild Wars 2.”

This definitive statement brought a tear to this GW1 vet’s eye. Now, lets hope they hold to it.

To start: Female, Human

Humans are something I’m “comfortable” with, and as such helps to give me a better feel for the class itself when I’m playing. I have rolled a human female of every class, and will continue the trend with my first Revenent.

If I like the class, I will then look at other races that I might enjoy playing it as. I do not have a heavy Charr or Sylvari as yet, so that may factor into the decision when/if I opt to make an additional revenent.

INF.8496:

hmm, maybe some local review writer tranlated something wrong, or gets missunderstood.
But it was like “no more payments, everything in future will be free, they said”

I vaguely recall something long those lines. But I also believe it was clarified, and referring to LS updates. Which, they have said that those will be free as long as you log in during release “window.”

Rebound.3409:

Besides it hasn’t been state it will be payed…how cheep can u get seriously. By the time the expo comes out this game will be 3 years old. If u played it since beta u practically payed 50$ for a game that has lasted u for 3 years. Is it that much to pay 30-40$ more when the expansion comes out IF it’s payed?

Not to mention u will most likely be able to get the expansion with ingame gems. Just like u can upgrade the normal GW2 client to digital deluxe and so on.

Actually it has been stated that it will be available for purchase in both digital and box editions. Its in the FAQ section I believe.

There are several links floating around here, let me see if I can find one.

Found it:

Q: Is the expansion “buy to play”?
A: Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns is a paid expansion to Guild Wars 2, but once you buy it, there are no subscription fees. This means that you can continue playing and access future updates for Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns with no subscription fee.

https://help.guildwars2.com/entries/105801626-Guild-Wars-2-Heart-of-Thorns-FAQ

Pinkamena Diane Pie.8054:

I am more concerned about the WvW aspects. For 2 years we’ve been waiting for new maps. After really bad treatment from anet, we finally get one, but only one.

If I buy this “expansion” what can I expect for future WvW updates? New maps? New events? New features? Or just more masteries and QoL fixes that take the least amount of time to do, but 2 years to add?!

It sounds like they are looking at reworking some of the base mechanics of the mode, from what I’m hearing. Making things like defensive play more meaningful. Making holding the objective more lucrative as opposed to just repeatedly flipping them. But we’ll see what happens.

No, they have never said that everything would be free.

They have said that after the initial purchase of the base game it would be free to play “forever.”

They have stated that they would come out with future content that would be purchasable, waaaaay back at launch. And that after said purchase of future content, it too would be free to play forever. They also said it would be optional, you didn’t have to purchase it in order to keep playing [the base game].

All of this remains true.

Tachenon.5270:

Belated was Orion.

Because he so often dropped fire storm after everything was dead…

Don’t forget “Useless was Alesia”

Ugh how I hated that hench monk. Terrible, terrible ai, and an equally terrible build to go right along with it.

Nothing has been definitively stated (that I’ve found) that there won’t be “any” additional skills for the base classes. So, there might be, but if there are I wouldn’t expect there to be loads of them.

I believe it has been confirmed that it is just a single specialization per class for HoT; however, this does not mean that more won’t be coming at some point.

I think we need more detail regarding how much specializations will add and change before we get too worked up over it.

Chewablesleeptablet.3185:

Anet’s reason for not adding a new race seemed like they were either lazy or did not have the time or money.

Or maybe it didn’t fit with the current story line?

Maybe they just feel that 5 is enough for now, or maybe we’ll never have another one. They’ve never said they would give us a new playable race, only that if they did, there is a select number of races they would pull from.

I have a couple of warriors. Then again, I have a couple of pretty much everything. However, ele and mes tend to be my main characters (although I very much enjoy ranger when I’m farming SW).

So, not “everyone” is a warrior. I actually think warrior might be my least favorite class, it’s pretty close between warrior and thief.

I kind of figured when they introduced collections that they might be a dry run for something like this, and I’m good with that. I am completely happy with having 1 collection per precursor (and I imagine its going to be a kitten to complete). That guarantees the acquisition of at least 1 precursor for every legendary, for every account. With relatively limited RNG nightmare.

ColinJohanson.2394:

EgonVenkman.1907:

No matter what current method chosen, it is still light years away from your very comment that by level 80, players should have the best statistical loot in the game.

Yeah to be clear on that one, as we’ve said before: we made that statement before the game launched, ultimately realized we didn’t think it was the right decision for Gw2 – and changed our mind. I fully own making this statement, the day I said it was our plan – our lead designer decided it was the wrong direction for the game after we stated it, and we changed direction.

Sometimes plans will change, I can assure you it’s never our intention to intentionally mislead/trick anyone, that’s simply the nature of development: from time to time things we say at one point later have to change.

While I personally disagree with that general choice / change of plans, I’ll go with it.

Still, can we please do something about how painful ascended acquisition is? Being account bound is great…once you can finally get to the point of actually having it. Maybe if the slope just wasn’t quite so kitten steep maybe?

ColinJohanson.2394:

Hey folks,

I just want to take a second to address this topic, because it’s something we state as one of our key philosophies – but don’t often clarify exactly what we mean we say it. And because everyone and their mother has their own unique interpretation of what grind can mean, it’s very simple for this to feel like we’re not following our own guidelines when we build and implement content.

When our company president said we have an anti-grind philosophy way back before Gw2 shipped, and when it has been repeatedly reinforced since then, our statement is simply: “We don’t think you should need to grind to get the best gear and stats in Guild Wars 2”.

So what exactly does that mean:

- The best gear/stats: This means to have statistically the best abilities in the game, you shouldn’t need to, by our definition of the word, grind. This goes for leveling and getting top gear (by our definition that’s ascended gear, legendary being an optional extra thing you can do, but don’t need to do.)

- Grind: To us, grind means being required to do the same boring activity over and over again. In particular, the biggest reference we’re talking about here in traditional MMO’s is having to kill the same creatures over and over again to farm for levels or gear. In Gw2, you can gain exp and levels from a massive variety of game play, game modes, and content types. Same goes for the ability to acquire the gear to build up your characters. Similarly, ascended mats can be acquired from a wide variety of content types and game modes to allow you choice and options so you don’t need to grind to complete those goals. Our new mastery system continues to this promise as well, which we’ll go into more detail on soon.

There are certainly optional activities in the game players can embark on that I think we’d openly accept fall into the category of our definition of more “grindy”. Earning certain unique skins, and in particular some titles absolutely qualify as things we’d put on this list. Legendary weapons have components to them that fall into this category, though we’ll be doing work in HOT to make this much less the case. We feel these are optional choices players don’t need to do, but can if they want, and because they are optional are acceptable within our statement that “Gw2 doesn’t make you grind to have the best gear/stats”. That doesn’t mean we can’t make those activities more fun as well, but when we say “no grind philosophy” we’re not including optional things you can do, but don’t need to do, in our definition.

Hope that helps a bit, that’s our philosophy and definition we’re going by when we make those statements. They may not align to your definition of grind, and that’s ok – we’re fine with that! It’s just important you know what we mean when we make that statement so you can make decisions about how you view Gw2 and judge us by our actions/words.

Thanks again for being so passionate about this topic and the game which ever side of the discussion you fall on. It’s something incredibly important to modern MMO’s and gamers in general, and we truly appreciate the dialogue you all are having on topics like this. It’s what makes better games for all of us.

Colin, I luv ya… I really do, and I get what you’re point is here; however, ascended goes against the initial pillars you guys set forth. No matter how you spin it.

We aren’t going to have the best stat gear by the time we’re 80 unless we grind in some way. Yes, you point out that the materials are available a variety of ways, you don’t have to do the exact same thing over and over again, which is great; however the sheer amount you need to do of the assorted things is in itself grind. You’re either doing it all again and again for materials… or for gold. Perhaps if it weren’t so terribly time gated it would “feel” less grindy, but that’s neither here nor there.

The fact remains, that ascended, as it currently stands does not mesh with the pillars you guys originally set forth, and state are still important.

Dervish

Summon the powers of the 6 human gods (in a very diluted fashion)

;)

Chewablesleeptablet.3185:

Blaeys.3102:

We do not know the scope of Heart of Thorns yet.

Actually we do know the scope. Colin gave a speech in front of a crowd about it.

Colin gave us a taste of the new major features.

We know nothing beyond that we will have a new region, with lots of verticiality that was split into 3 biomes. A new specialization system. A new mastery system. A new wvw map. A new heavy class. And a new tpvp game mode. (And precursor scavanger hunts / new legendaries)

We don’t know the real meat about any of it. We have a very high level view of what we’ll be getting. They’ll be drilling down in the coming weeks.

I’d say people that are claiming its “not enough” or “too small” are jumping the gun just a little bit, considering they have essentially no detail.

Edit: And Guild Halls. Forgot that one.

LOL op…..what you describe would be any game ever.

Expansions typically come with more skills and such, to give people a reason to continue playing their max level characters. Because people require something to feel like they are progressing their character. Tada, specializations and masteries. Likely masteries will be region specific though, much as EotN rep titles were region specific in their bonuses.

So yes, if you don’t buy it, you don’t get the new goodies. Doesn’t make it “pay to win.” You obviously have no idea wtf ‘p2w’ actually is.

Yup, plan on buying two copies. One for each account.

And at least a character slot for each account for the new class.

:) Can’t wait!

Vizu would be nifty. Maybe Togo.

I can see Glint, Lich, and Shiro as viable options.

Maybe Duncan the Black? He was always….fun (to kill).

Ascended gear is the only thing that can really be considered in regards to going against the initial ‘no grind’ philosophy. There are at least 3 different views regarding whether that the tier is “required” and therefore “mandatory grind.”

Beyond that single bone of contention, I feel Anet has been relatively true to ‘no mandatory grind.’

Well, we did get the start of a timeline out of it though. We know we should be getting detailed information starting in about 2 weeks, and we know that the first playable demos will be available at PAX East in 6 weeks.

If HoT runs as quickly as the initial game launch, it might only be a few months before the expansion is on store shelves.

fadeaway.2807:

rapthorne.7345:

No level cap/gear tier increase: We were very specifically told that no new tier of gear or level cap was coming so people’s work on characters wouldn’t be invalidated

That means all my ascended gear for my guardian should transfer pretty easily to the revenant ?

Pretty much, its a new heavy class.

Vayne.8563:

Ashen.2907:

Vayne.8563:

Many of us told them so. Nothing else really made sense.

Honestly I did not expect it to be a traditional MMO expansion for the same reasons you stated that you thought anyone expecting an expansion was just hoping.

Vayne.8563:

If anything, the announcement the way it’s phrased, is specifically telling us there will be no expansion. Anyone who expects one with that wording is just living in hope.

The wording talks about new ways to expand the Guild Wars 2 universe. Expansions aren’t new ways to expand it. That’s old school. To me this implies new things that aren’t being done in the industry at least commonly. Ergo, it won’t be an expansion announcement.

I am glad that we were both wrong.

Sorry mate, but I wasn’t wrong. It’s not a “traditional” expansion. No new tiers of gear and no new level cap. I’ve yet to play a traditional expansion without those things.

Eye of the North?

It was a considered a ‘traditional’ expansion, by most standards. It did not contain a level cap raise, or new gear tiers.

Generalizations suck.

They have never said that they wouldn’t do an expansion. They did say that they weren’t sure which option they wanted to go with because Living World was capable of delivering the same types of content. They never said they wouldn’t do both.

Since the very first LS update, I have been of the opinion that Living World would be better used to lay the ground work for an expansion. The lead in, and that’s pretty much exactly what they did. Let’s see if they continue that trend after the expansion drops. They haven’t said LS is going away. So we’ll see where they go next.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Mesmer specialization includes a shield weapon and a clock skill.

ahem

CHRONOMANCER SPECIALIZATION FOR MESMERS CALLING IT NOW

That would make sense. I’ll throw my hat into that ring with you Konig.